Project Details

The project revolved around designing and developing a product that would explore the future of intimacy. Over 10 weeks, I talked to over 15 people, read countess articles, made a variety of prototypes and found a brand new field to fall in love with.

read a more in-depth version of my learnings here: https://jillanerishah.substack.com/p/we-made-it-for-now

Research

During my interviews, I noticed an interesting dichotomy. Especially when discussing physical intimacy, Experts and online research supported an interest in how technology was changing the way people are intimate with one another, emotionally and physically. But the users I spoke with were highly resistant to any form of technology "getting in the way" of their relationships with others.

The problem seemed to be that people were resistant of the future they were seeing happen. I heard quotes from multiple people about how "technology shouldn't replace us" even though "the future is technology." I then decided to spend more time exploring various views of these future with a variety of provocotypes (prototypes that are designed to provoke strong emotions): An AI therapist, a haptic VR suit, and a physical device to encourage exploration.

Participants showed strong interest in the idea of a device to help support and guide exploration, both for themselves as individuals and alongside other partners, but I wanted to move beyond the existing methods of conversation cards, which are effective but already existing. I found a variety of studies about how the population of single people is increasing, and how people are getting into romantic relationships with AI, and I became interested in the way individuals without the support of a partner, are able to learn about themselves through technology.

Ideation

I developed 2 workshops to brainstorm ideas, focusing on the question How Might We make exploration empowering? Some of the prototypes this led to included a jewelry box that provided storytelling prompts, stackable blocks with questions, and others that didn't come to fruition because they felt like conversation cards with extra steps, not a meaningful interaction.

In discussing the jewelry box with our faculty advisor, Jose, he mentioned the idea of talking to or exploring with a jewelry box didn't feel intimate. He suggested a small creature that you could build a relationship with, as you built a stronger relationship with yourself. He said you could hold it to your ear, and it could whisper to you, and as he held to it his ear I said "like a seashell!" and Conchess was born.

Prototyping

For the form factor, I created multiple seashells. I liked a conch shell, both for the size and the shape that supports holding it to your ear.

I created an animated soft pink glow that would change upon usage. While I played with different colors, the pink combined with the translucent white rang true to a conch shell without trying to be too realistic. For the algorithm, I developed a series of questions and common responses as training for a local Ollama model to depict how over time, this LLM could learn about the user and create custom questions and responses, but in a completely private and environmentally friendly way.